In recent months, Oklahoma Congressman Frank Lucas has been actively attempting to hold the federal government accountable over the way it conducts certain operations under the Biden administration.
His latest effort as chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Rep. Lucas and two other Republican leaders of subcommittees have raised questions that NOAA might be releasing misleading data in its annual publication of weather-related disasters.
Working with Environment Subcommittee Chairman Max Miller of Oohio and Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Jay Obernolte of California, Lucas has sent a letter of inquiry to Dr. Rick Spinrad, NOAA Administrator.
They questioned whether there was “potentially deceptive data and its lack of accessibility.”
“The Committee has learned that NOAA could be releasing misleading data in its annual publication of weather-related disasters that exceed one billion dollars (“reports”). NOAA’s reports are broadly cited and used to justify policy decisions on climate change. Therefore, it’s critical that the information endorsed by NOAA is accurate and trustworthy,” the committee leaders said in the letter.
In a press release, Rep. Lucas said that as the nation’s primary authority for weather reporting, NOAA’s scientific data must be unwaveringly trusted by the public, particularly regarding information on extreme weather events. Administrator Spinrad even stressed the importance of NOAA’s scientific integrity and transparency in a 2021 Science Committee hearing.
However, in the letter, the committee leaders cite a recent peer-reviewed article pointing to several apparent flaws in the data NOAA uses to calculate costs associated with weather-related disasters.
“For example, in the case of Florida’s Hurricane Idalia, NOAA estimated a cost of $3.6 billion. Yet according to statistics from the state itself, the total insured losses amounted to approximately $310 million. Even accounting for losses on uninsured property, it is unclear how NOAA could arrive at a figure that is nearly twelve times the insured losses,” Lucas, Miller, and Obernolte said.
“Furthermore, the article highlighted that the general public and greater scientific community are unable to replicate NOAA’s calculations because NOAA does not make public its ‘sources, input data, and methodologies employed’ in these reports. As a result, the keystones of the scientific method, independent verification and analyses, are currently impossible.”
Additionally, the letter points to data from billion-dollar disasters appearing and disappearing from datasets and the inconsistencies in the data’s application of the Consumer Price Index to adjust for inflation.
Lucas explained the discrepancies go against NOAA’s Scientific Integrity and Information Quality policies, which stress transparency and accessibility to the data and information used to inform decisions.
“Given the inability to independently verify NOAA’s reports, there is reason to believe the report’s figures lack transparency, traceability, and utility. These potential data quality and scientific integrity issues are especially concerning considering how broadly these reports are cited by policy makers and the media as an indication of climate change,” Lucas, Miller, and Obernolte stressed.
To better understand the methods behind data selection and the strategies for developing models for processing and producing the datasets used in these reports, the committee requests that NOAA publish all data and methodologies used for these reports and respond to the letter request no later than September 17, 2024.
Read the full letter to Administrator Spinrad here.